The invention relates to an electrical device, particularly a television, that can be connected via a mains plug to a mains voltage and that has a stand-by mode or an energy saving mode and that has an interference suppression capacitor circuit, made up of at least one interference suppression capacitor, a power supply unit and a control unit for the stand-by mode or energy saving mode.
Electrical devices that are supplied from the main grid generally have at least one interference suppression capacitor to decrease electromagnetic interference. The use of an interference suppression capacitor is prescribed and regulated in most countries through appropriate norms.
The interference suppression capacitor generally has relatively large capacitance and is directly connected to the main grid. As long as the electrical device is connected to the main grid, the capacitor is charged and stores electrical energy. If the electrical device is disconnected from the main grid by pulling out the mains plug, the energy stored in the interference suppression capacitor can be discharged via the contacts of the mains plug. This means that if a person touches the contacts of the mains plug any charge from the capacitor found there flows as a current through this person who then receives an electric shock.
For safety reasons, it is thus stipulated that the capacitor has to be internally discharged a few seconds after the plug has been pulled out. To this effect, a discharging resistor is generally disposed parallel to the interference suppression capacitor.
A disadvantage here, however, is that a current permanently flows through this discharging resistor. In the case of an electrical device having a stand-by mode or energy saving mode, the current through the resistor contributes greatly to the stand-by current. The aim of modern devices is to keep the stand-by current as low as possible. To achieve this, however, a discharging resistor having correspondingly high impedance has to be used, whereupon the discharging process may then take too long.